Normally, when there's a puzzling legal dispute involving Apple, the computer company seems to be on the defendant side of the ledger. (Think lawsuits over iPhone price cuts or scratched-up iPod nanos .) But this time, it's Apple doing the legal saber-rattling and the object of its ire is the largest city in the United States.

So here's the skinny, courtesy of Bloomberg: New York's tourism and marketing office filed the trademark application last May for the logo, which includes the outline of an apple with a stem and a leaf. Apple filed its challenge in January, claiming New Yorks's logo is too similar to its logo. New York has filed its response to Apple's response, and the next step, Wired reports, is for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to commission a survey to find out just how confusing people find the rival apple logos. Look for a resolution in six to nine months' time, unless the Big Apple and big Apple come to an understanding, not unlike last year's iPhone naming dispute between Cisco and Apple.

Our take? It seems like Apple's been through enough of these trademark battles with everyone from the Beatles to McIntosh Labs to know that the only people who tend to come out ahead in these disputes are the ones who deal in billable hours.